Rotary tool for operating on parts of shoes.



A: L. RUSSELL.

ROTARY TOOL FOR OPERATING ON PARTS OF SHOES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.5.1908.

1,149,859. Patented Aug. 10, 1915.

2 SHEETSSHEET l- A. L. RUSSELL.

ROTARY TOOL FOR OPERATING 0N PARTS OF SHOES.

i APPLICATION FILED AUG-5| 1908.

1,149,859. L. b Patented Aug. 10, 1915.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR L. RUSSELL, OF PARK, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, or JERSEY.

PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW ,ROTARY TOOL FOR OPERATING- ON PARTS OF SHOES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 10, 1915.

Application filed August 5, 1908. Serial No..447,112.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR L. RUSSELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hyde Park, in the county of Norfolk and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Rotary Tools for Operating on Parts of Shoes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indlcatlng like parts in the several figures. 1

This invention relates to apparatus for use in making shoes, and particularly to rotary tools for operating upon shoes.

The invention is shown for illustrative purposes as embodied in a rotary tool adapted for use in treatingthe bottoms of shoes as, for example, in shaping or beating out the shoe bottom, or in laying down and smoothing out the channel flap.

The means heretofore employed for treating the bottom surfaces of shoes include hand operated devices such as the common rub stick, and power driven rolls mounted in a fixed support and against which the workman holds the shoe. The hand operated devices have the advantage that they can be applied to a shoe mounted on a jack, and angled or tipped by hand to treat the shoe in any desired place. The power. operated device has the disadvantage of requiring the presentation of the shoe with the last in it, which makes the operation fatiguing and, in systems of making shoes in which the last has already been withdrawn, expensive.

An object of the present invention is to obtain the advantages of a power driven device in a tool for operating upon shoes which possesses certain novel and advantageous characteristics hereinafter explained and pointed out in the claims, and which can be held and freely manipulated in the hands of the operator.

A further object of the invention is to provide means for automatically stopping a hand carried power operated tool when its use upon a shoe has been completed, and automatically starting it when it is again to be employed.

Another important object of the invention is to improve the construction of tools of this class.

One important feature of this invention a helical comprises the provision of a tool having a continuous yielding metallic periphery with groove extending circumferentially around it. v

A further feature of the invention consists in means for controlling the operation .of a tool whereby the driving of the tool may be started andstopped by the workman. It is useless to drive a tool when the tool is not being employed for treating a shoe. It is the practice for aworkman to beat out, lay the flap or otherwise treat one shoe, then put the beating out tool aside while the treated shoeis being removed and another shoe put into position, andin the illustrated embodiment of this feature of the invention means 1s, therefore, provided whereby a tool is automatically stopped when it is laid aside after the treatment of one shoe and is automatically started when it is taken up for treatment of another shoe. This is effected as shown by the use of a suitable tool holder- .or bracket arranged to open a driving clutch when the tool is put into the holder, said clutch being automatically closed by a spring when the tool is taken up for use.

A further feature of this invention consists in the novel construction of a channelclosing device which comprises a substantially rigid stem or support and a resilient coil loosely encircling the stem and supported thereon at itsends while being free to yield radially under pressure of the work between its end portions. Preferably the coil at one or both ends of the roll will be so supported as to give the roll a substan tially unyielding rubbing surface for a distance equal to the width'of a plurality of convolutions. Preferably the coil will present a reversely inclined corrugated surface adapted to work the stock laterally as it rubs over it. The coil may be a resilient wire re veisely wound from the middle toward the en s.

The improved rubbing and shaping tool is here illustrated as employed for channel closing and shaping or beating out the bottom of a shoe while the shoe is supported on a jack. It is of course within the scope of this invention to embody these improvements in a tool for rubbing or shaping other portions of a shoe. The flexible acting surface provided by the closely adjacent convolutions in the middle portion of the tool which are radially spaced from the supportiii ing rod far enough to allow thetool to take the shape of the surface pressed against 1t adapts the tool for shaping the foreparts of shoe uppers over the toe portions of lasts. For this use the shoe may be jacked and held in any appropriate position to suit the convenience of the operator holding the tool in his hands, or the operator may hold the shoe and the driven tool built to embody the present improvements may be stationarily mounted, as will be obvious.

These and other features of the invention will appear in connection with the following description of a construction embodying the invention in a channel-closing tool and will be pointed out in the claims.

Figure 1 of the drawings 1s a planview showing the channel-closing tool in use. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the tool 1n 1ts holder, the clutch of the driving means being open. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the holder. Fig. 4 is a section through the handle that is adjacent to the clutch. Fig. 5 shows a sole-pressing machine with which the apparatus of the present invention may be operatively connected for advantageous use.

The channel-closing device comprises a rigid stem 1 on one end of which the handle 2 is loosely confined by'the head 4 to permit the stem to turn in the handle. A collar 5 fast on the stem forms an anchor for one end of a spring 6 which is reversely coiled from the middle toward its ends and forms a resilient work-rubbing member having corrugations inclined with relation to the direction of rotation to wipe the stock out--' wardly toward the two sides of the shoe bottom. The coil is much larger than the stem so that it may yield radially toward the stem to conform to the contour of the work. The second end of the coil is wound around and supported by a collar 8 to which it is fastened and which holds it in predetermined radial relation to the stem causing the end portion of the coil to present a substantially unyielding section of the channel closing device. The collar is pinned to .the stem and partially incloses a spring 10,

which presses against a second collar 12. This collar 12 may slide on the stem and it forms by shoulders 14 one member of a clutch, the other member 15 of which has interlocking shoulders 16 and is loose upon the stem 1 but fast to a sleeve 18, which extends loosely through the handle 20 and is held against endwise movement on the rod by the screw 22. The outer end or head of the sleeve 18 is pinned to a flexible shaft 23 which has operative connection with a continuously moving driver indicated at 31 in Fig. 5. The driver 31 is the driven pulley of a sole-pressing machine with which this invention may be used. It has operative "greases connections as shown with a jack 25 adapted to hold a shoe while it is being treated by the channel-closing or beating-out tool and then to move the shoe into position to be treated by the presser member 26.

A bracket or holder 30 to receive the tool while it is not in use is adapted to be at- .tached to the frame of the machine, as shown in Fig. 5, or to any other support and comprises yokes 32 shaped to receive the necks of the two handles 2 and 20. The yokes have beveled inner faces, as shown best in Fig. 2, and are spaced such a distance apart that when the tool is dropped into them the sliding clutch member 12 will be forced inwardly against the pressure of spring 10 and separated from the continuously driven member 15 to disconnect the tool from its driving mechanism. When the tool is lifted the spring reengages the clutch members automatically and starts the tool.

In the use of the illustrated embodiments of the invention the tool will be supported entirely in the hands of the workman sothat he has the same freedom to manipulate it by tipping it, angling it, and reciproeating it over the work that he has with the ordinary rub stick or channel-closing iron. In addition to these movements which the workman may give to the tool it will be rotatedby its power-driven connections, thus causingit to act much more rapidly and more effectively than an ordinary hand tool. The oppositely inclined corrugations on the tool adapt it to work the stock outwardly at the two sides of the shoe bottom simultaneously for laying the channel flap or for any other purpose and the constructionof the tool by which the resilient rubbing member can adapt itself to the contour 2f the work enables it to leave a smooth surace.

- In using the hand tools of the type hereinabove referred to, it was customary for the workman to move the tool along one margin of the shoe sole from the shank to the toe and then along the opposite margin of the sole from the toe to the shank; but the tool provided by this invention is in reality two tools that operate simultaneously on the flap at opposite sides of the sole and lay it down during one movement of the tool from the shank to the toe. Obviously it would be possible an advantageous, as compared with the earlier forms of tools of this character, to use one of these tools or helical sections of the member (3 .v'ithout the other, and to run it around the shoe in the manner customary in using the old styles of tools; and such an arrangement would involve features of this invention.

It will be evident that the corrugated or ribbed surface of the device herein illustrated is formed by using for the member 6 a strip of material having a rounded outer edge, winding this strip in the form of a helix to produce each tool or work rubbing section, and mounting the member so formed in a holder arranged to maintain adjacent turns or convolutions ofeacli helix in contact with each other. This construction provides in the work rubbing surface of each section of the member 6 a helical groove extending aplurality of times around the periphery of the section or tool. The rounded edge of the strip of material also avoids marri'ng the work as the peripheral. surface of the tool yields to conform to the contour of the part of the shoe that is presented to it.

Having explained the nature of this invention and described a preferred construction embodying the same, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States: I

1. An apparatus of the class'described having, in combination, a channel-closing device, a support from which the device is removable to permit its use in the hands of the workman, means for driving said device while it is free from its support, a clutch and means associated with the support to operate the clutch when the channel closing device is applied to the support.

An apparatus of the class described having, in combination, a channel-closing tool comprising a resilient spiral coil closely wound with its strands substantially in contact and a substantially rigid stem extending through the coil, said tool being constructed and arranged to be supported entirely in the hands of a workman and adapted to be manually actuated by the workman, and power-driven means operaconnected to the tool for imparting other movements thereto.

P 3. An apparatus of the class described having, in combination, a channel-closing tool, means for driving said tool, starting and stopping means including clutch mem bers located between the tool and said driving means, and including laterally separable members, a holder for the tool comprising a member formed to separate the clutch members and hold them apart while the tool is in the holder, and means for pressing the 1 clutch members together when the tool is removed from the holder.

4; An apparatus of the class described having, in combination, a channel-closing tool, a holder for the tool, and connected mechanical devices movable with the tool toward and away from the holder for driv-.

tool, having at opposite ends handles by which it can be moved over a shoe bottom, a holder having two forks to receive the tool when it is not in use, and means for driving the tool when it is in use, said means including a .clutch located between the working portion of the tool and one of the handles and the clutch and said holder being relatively constructed and arranged to cause theclutch to be opened by the application of the tool to the holder.

6. An apparatus of the class described having, in combination, 'a channel-closing tool, meansafor driving the tool comprising a clutch, a holder for the tool having means to open the clutch automatically when the tool is inserted in the holder, and a spring to close the clutch when the tool is withends and through one or more convolutions toward the center to present substantially unyielding work rubbing surfaces and.

adapted to yield radially toward the stem between said unyielding end portions to adapt itself to the contour of the work, and power-driven means for rotating the device within the handles.

8. A rotary tool for operating on parts of boots .and shoes, having a work rubbing surface comprising a yielding metallic periphery with a helical groove therein extending circumferentially a plurality. of times around the periphery of the tool.

9. An apparatus of the class described, having in combination, a tool, a support to receive thetool when it is not in use, actuating mechanism for the tool, and a clutch between the tool and its actuating mechanism arranged to cause the actuation of the cally without further manipulation by the operator than that involved in removing the tool from and replacing it on the tool support.

10. A flexible rubbing tool comprising a resilient metallic rod doubled upon itself. at its middle, the bend being formed and disposed to glide over the surface of the work being treated, said rod being helically coiled in opposite directions from said bend into closely adjacent convolutions to present a cylindrical roll having ribs which are relatively yielding radially but substantially unyielding laterally, each rib having a transversely curved acting face disconnected from the face of the adjacent rib, and driving means connected to said tool.

11. A flexible rubbing roll comprising a resilient metallic rod presenting reversely coiled helixes joined in the middle, the convolutions being closely adjacent to each other to present a cylindrical formation the ribs of which each has a transversely convex acting face disconnected from the adjacent ribs and is relatively yielding radially but substantially unyielding laterally, said roll having a substantially unyielding work rubbing surface for a distanceequal to the width of a plurality of ribs.

14. A rubbing tool having a work rubbing surface comprising separate ribs extending helically around the axis of the tool from the middle of said surface toward opposite ends of the tool in closely adjacent convolutions and yielding inwardly to permit the work rubbing surface to be shaped by a transversely convex contour of .a portion of the shoe presented to the tool, the ribs having their outer edges formed to avoid marring the Work when the work rubbing surface is bent' out of normal position in conforming to the contour of the work.

15. A rotary tool having-a work rubbing surface comprising ribs forming a helix extending around the axis of the tool in closely adjacent convolutions and arranged to yield inwardly to permit the work rubbing surface to conform to the portion of the shoe presented to the tool, the ribs having their outer edges rounded to avoid marring the -work when the work rubbing surface is bent out of normal position in conforming to the contour of the work.

16. A rotary tool for operating on parts of boots and shoes having a work rubbing surface comprising a strip of material shaped to form a yielding peripheral helical member with the adjacent convolutions of said helical member in contact with each other, the.outer edges of said strip being rounded to form in said work rubbing surface a helical groove extending circumferentially around the tool.

17. A wheel for burnishing and finishing parts of boots and shoes having a continuous yielding metallic periphery, with a helical groove therein extending circumferentially therearound.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ARTHUR L. RUSSELL.

\Vitnesses ELIZABETH C. COUPE, EMILE TARDIVEL. 

